A Work in Progress….

Genesis 35:9 After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. 

As I was reading today’s scripture, particularly verse 10, Isaiah 43:1 came to mind: … “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” God not only calls us by name–as Jacob/Israel shows us here, He also reminds us who we are in Him. No longer Jacob but now Israel. 

Genesis 35:10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.

And as salty as I am about Jacob’s ridiculousness, as much as I want to say, “Seriously, God, You want to give him *another* chance?,” the messy, fallible human in me says, “Thank You, Jesus, that You never gave up on him, that You never give up on me. I do not deserve the second and third and fourth chances, but I am so grateful You give them. Thank You.”

Genesis 35:11 And God said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. 

Precious Savior, Thank You that the words of Isaiah 43:1 are not only for Jacob/Israel, but also for me: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Thank You that You do not cast us aside just because we mess up. Thank You that You give us chance after chance after chance to get it right, that You show us example after example in Your Word of Biblical stalwarts who messed up time and time again. It’s not about our perfection, it’s about Your fierce love. Thank You. Amen. 

Genesis 35:12 The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.”

Have a blessed day. 

Genesis 35:5 Then they set out, and the terror of God fell on the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.

Loving God, It is so easy to pass judgement on Jacob and his family as they fumble around, trying to get things right. It’s easy to shake my head and shake my finger and say, “God’s right there. Why doesn’t Jacob trust? Why doesn’t he obey?,” but I know I’m just as guilty of headstrong obstinance when it suits me. Forgive me.

Genesis 35:6 Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. 

Holy Father, Nothing seems so clear, so certain, as “armchair quarterbacking” someone else’s mistakes, dissecting them, judging them. “Oh, they should have….” “Oh, I would have….” “Oh, If only….” but I am just as guilty of fumbling around in my own life, trying to get things right, trying to find my way. Forgive me–for my judgment and my fumbling.

Genesis 35:7 There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Precious Savior, You are my Rock, my salvation, the One I cling to when everything feels like it’s falling apart. Help me to seek You first, before things start falling apart, instead of saving You for a last resort. You are where my peace can be found. Always. Amen.

Genesis 35:8 Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. So it was named Allon Bakuth.

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.”

With my last child set to graduate high school in a week, today’s scripture has me thinking a lot about the foundations we have laid for our children and the fact that those foundations will only take them so far. At some point, sooner rather than later, they will have to make our foundations their own.

Genesis 35:2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.

What I mean is that when they are in our house, we set the rules. It’s Sunday. Time for church. It’s time to eat. Let’s pray first. But when the youngest goes off to school in the fall, he will get to make those calls, decide whether he believes what we believe, whether he wants to adhere to the systems we adhere to. It’s scary and exhilarating, probably for all of us.

Genesis 35:3 Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.”

Precious Savior, Thank You for the years we have had to grow and nurture these young men in our home. Thank You for trusting us to be the parents they needed. We didn’t always succeed. Sometimes we messed up royally, but we have given them a solid foundation of love in You. Be with them as they find their wings. Keep us all grounded in Your love. Amen.

Genesis 35:4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. 

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 34:28 They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. 

This entire situation is horrible. Dinah was raped, which was beyond terrible. But her brothers’ response–murder, destruction, plunder–definitely did not help anyone move towards light and healing. And Jacob’s response to his sons’ actions? I’m paraphrasing here: You have brought trouble on *me*. What if they retaliate? This family isn’t big enough to fight them off.

Genesis 34:29 They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.

All of this makes me wonder about Ch 32 when Jacob wrestled with God and won, receiving the name Israel to show he was a new person. These actions, this response, are definitely from the old Jacob, not the new Israel. There appears to be no change, no growth.

Genesis 34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”

Precious Savior, Is it wrong to take comfort in the fact that You have called and powerfully used people who still messed up and made mistakes, even after You acted in their lives? I take comfort because I know how often I mess up, even when I try to do what’s right. It brings me comfort because I know You won’t cast me aside just because I am still so fallibly human. Thank You for Your fierce love. Thank You that You can use me even when I stumble. Amen.

Genesis 34:31 But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 34:24 All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.

This revenge was planned, calculated. From the first suggestion of circumcision to win Dinah’s hand, the sons of Jacob had this end in mind. But not only did they kill all the males in the city, they also looted the city after the massacre. As with Dinah’s rape, the word that comes to mind here is evil.

Genesis 34:25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. 

A quick scripture search leads me to Matthew 5:21-22, where Jesus equates anger with murder. What does He do with this scripture? Rape led to mass circumcision led to mass murder led to looting. Jesus has no sin-o-meter. It’s all wrong. It’s all sin. The brothers’ actions didn’t balance any scale.

Genesis 34:26 They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword and took Dinah from Shechem’s house and left. 

Precious Savior, Thank You for reinforcing the fact that vengeance is Yours, not ours. We can’t handle that responsibility. Help us to focus on loving You and loving others, in seeing You in all who we encounter. Help us to know how to move forward from tragedy and heartbreak in a way that leads to light, to healing, to You and not in a way that leads to destruction. Help us, Jesus. Amen.

Genesis 34:27 The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 34:18-19 Their proposal seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. The young man, who was the most honored of all his father’s family, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. 

I am reading this story to learn, so I see traps all over the place here. I would think that the Shechem’s friends and neighbors would know what Shechem had done, would know the heinousness of the violation and would be a bit suspicious of Jacob’s sons and their easy acquiescence. Apparently not.

Genesis 34:20-21 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the men of their city.“These men are friendly toward us,” they said. “Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours. 

I guess it’s possible, since they live in the same place as Shechem, that they see his actions as acceptable. Maybe they have done the same before. But I don’t understand why no one thinks about how mass circumcision will incapacitate the males of the village and how that could be a really bad thing. It defies logic.

Genesis 34:22 But the men will agree to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are. 

Precious Savior, Thank You that I can look at this situation from the outside and see the harm and danger present. When I am in situations in life, please help me to be as aware and in tune to harm and danger. Help me to keep You–not those around me–as my moral compass. Help me to live a life that is pleasing to You. Always. Amen.

Genesis 34:23 Won’t their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us agree to their terms, and they will settle among us.”

Have a blessed day. 

Genesis 34:13 Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob’s sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor.  

I truly think Hamor and Shechem were oblivious to their heinousness. It’s hard to believe, but they both seem to think that violently taking a woman because you desire her and then offering whatever price to make her your wife is ok. There seems to be no guile, no fronting there, shocking as it may be.

Genesis 34:14 They said to them, “We can’t do such a thing; we can’t give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us. circumcising all your males.

The sons of Jacob, however, knew exactly what they were doing. There was deceit in their every word. They are planning to avenge their sister’s honor. They are setting Hamor and Shechem up. Is their act more or less despicable for its calculated nature? Does it matter? Not in God’s eyes.

Genesis 34:15 We will enter into an agreement with you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males.

Precious Savior, You tell me not to judge so that I will not be judged. Show me, then, what I am to do with this situation, this story. If You don’t want me to judge, then You want me to learn. Help  me to avoid both unplanned and intentional harm to others. Help me to strive to treat all others, as Your deeply loved children. Help me. Amen.

Genesis 34:16-17 Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We’ll settle among you and become one people with you. But if you will not agree to be circumcised, we’ll take our sister and go.”

Have a blessed day.

Genesis 34:5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he did nothing about it until they came home.

What Shechem did to Dinah is heinous. There is no other description. The question now is how will Dinah and her family move forward? In a way that leads to healing and light or in a way that leads to more destruction?

Genesis 34:6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 

Even typing that feels really naive, very “rose-colored,” but the truth remains that whatever they do next will either lead them on a path to healing or further down a path of pain.

Genesis 34:7 Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.

Precious Savior, Sometimes the only choice you have is whether you are going move towards light and healing or deeper into pain. Be with anyone facing this type of decision today, Lord. Help them to feel Your presence, Your peace. Help us all to actively move towards healing and peace. Always. Amen.

Genesis 34:8 But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.

Have a blessed day. 

Genesis 34:1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 

Commentary says, ““Unattached young women were considered fair game in cities of the time,” laying some of the blame of this heinous act on Dinah for going out without familial males to protect her, laying some of the blame on Jacob and Leah for not being sure she was supervised, and laying some of the blame on Shechem for violating her.

Genesis 34:2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her. 

The unfortunate truth is that many women today face similar violation–men who take what is not theirs, who say the females were “asking for it” in their dress or behavior, who, like Shechem, speak tenderly and claim to love their victims yet violate them all the same.

Genesis 34:3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her.

Precious Savior, My heart breaks for all who have been shamed and violated in this world. Be with them. Help them to heal and move forward. Be a light in their darkness, a peace in their distress. Help them to feel Your presence. Always. Amen.

Genesis 34: 4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”

Have a blessed day.